The "blue tide" prefigured a week ago swept over France's National Assembly in yesterday's election, when centre-right parties won 390 of 577 seats, according to a CSA institute exit poll.
The left-wing opposition will have 187 seats in the new chamber, including 160 socialists, 25 communists and two greens. The extreme right-wing National Front did not win a single seat.
The only shadow for the victorious right was the record high abstention rate, several points higher than 35.5 per cent reached on June 9th.
The Prime Minister, Mr Jean-Pierre Raffarin, had to shout to be heard over cheering supporters at the headquarters of President Chirac's new party, the Union for the Presidential Majority (UMP).
"Jacques Chirac's project has won its majority in parliament," Mr Raffarin said. Although the right was "living in the land of our happiness tonight", Mr Raffarin continued: "We face great responsibilities . . . we have an obligation not to disappoint; elections do not erase problems."
The majority would respect the opposition, he promised. "Now it is up to the President of the Republic to determine the course of our actions."
The socialists who ruled France for the past five years claimed to have "saved the furniture". But party leaders were stunned by the defeat of prominent figures, including the former employment minister Ms Martine Aubry. A few months ago, opinion polls showed that Ms Aubry, the architect of the 35-hour working week, was the most popular socialist politician. She was considered a likely prime minister if Mr Lionel Jospin had won the presidency. She was beaten yesterday by 700 votes by an unknown 32-year-old candidate from the UMP.
The defeat of the former interior minister, Mr Jean-Pièrre Chevenement, the leader of the left-wing "Pôle républicain", was also considered shocking.
Mr Chevenement had served 11 terms as deputy for Belfort, in eastern France, and mounted a serious challenge to Mr Jospin in the presidential election. Voters apparently blamed him for depriving Mr Jospin of votes that might have taken him to the run-off.
The former minister for European affairs, Mr Pierre Moscovici, the socialist speaker of parliament Mr Raymond Forni, and the former green minister Ms Dominique Voynet also lost their seats. Mr Moscovici drafted Mr Jospin's programme for the presidential campaign.
The left nonetheless rejoiced at the National Front's defeat. Mr Francois Hollande, the party leader, was re-elected in Mr Chirac's home region of Corrèze. The former ministers Mr Laurent Fabius, Mr Jack Lang, Ms Marylise Le Branchu and Ms Dominique Strauss-Kahn were also re-elected. So was the communist party leader, Mr Robert Hue. The left performed relatively well in Paris, which the socialists took last year, after a quarter century of rule by Gaullists.
With 364 deputies, the UMP has 75 seats more than required for an absolute majority. Some exit polls credited Mr Chirac's party with even more seats.
This means the president has carte blanche to legislate as he wishes. He does not even need the support of his allies in the UDF, which won 26 seats.